Digital BW, The Print

The problems I experienced with this paper when it was first
introduced seem to have been worked out. 
It still requires careful attention to ink limits, bit does achieve
nice densities and gamut. 
Looks nice. Blacks have a velvety appeal.
Just wanted to correct impressions I gave initially, the first
examples I had were disappointing and I said so...
Tyler

The first time I tried PR on Quadtone it was crappy. I got a pre-roll  
from Crane to test out. dMax was way down. The paper still doesn't  
work very well with Cone K ink but it works exceptionally with Epson  
MK now. No sheening with correct limiting and a deeper dMax than  
Hahnemuhle Photo Rag (at times.)  I still say Crane needs to make a PR  
surface that can take more ink. And they need to make their PR paper  
less brittle and easier to bend. It's too tough! That's the main turn- 
off for my clients for some reason.

all the best,
Walker

ps: I'm posting like this because I'm sick in bed and stuck to my  
printer for a week profiling Innova.

How many decent warm papers are there out there? I don't consider
William Turner a warm paper. Well, there is Hahnemuhle Bamboo and
Crane Portfollio Rag. The second beats the former in all aspects,
sharpness, tonal brilliance, and dmax. No, it doesnt take blacks as
well as the best papers out there but with the Cone Sepia K7 it is
amazing. You just need to linearize it carefully and it really is
super, reminds me of platinum but sharper.

john

I did get great results from K7. Not Quad. That's what I'm mostly  
running (split quad.)

So the new Cone inks are fine with it. It's the old ones with only a  
few inks building in the shadows that had problems with Portfolio R.  
I've tested it recently and it is still worse than Innova SC and HPR  
with Quad.

W

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

And it IS super super sharp. Sharpest paper I've seen.  Innova SC is  
second (for some weird reason.)

Walker

I agree with both of you. This is also one of those papers that just
looks good. Even with the problems, if you get a setup with good
coverage, and no bleed, there is a velvety richness I really like, no
matter the dmax.
Sometimes it gets down to stuff like that.
I've been working on a very very odd K7 setup on it using 2880x2880.
Very dufficult, and the printer does some very odd things at that setting.
But it sure is pretty, and it sure is photographic, but the dmax is
not impressive, just doesn't seem to matter.
Very very slow though, cool for small prints.
Tyler

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Walker Blackwell
<forums@...> wrote:

>
> And it IS super super sharp. Sharpest paper I've seen.  Innova SC is  
> second (for some weird reason.)
> 
> Walker
>

If you look at Premier Art Hotpress it is the same thing, super sharp,
great gamut, but lousy ink absorption and bizarre print color with
black and white with Cone's inks, and odd mono with Ultrachrome too.

john




--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Walker Blackwell
<forums@...> wrote:

>
> And it IS super super sharp. Sharpest paper I've seen.  Innova SC is  
> second (for some weird reason.)
> 
> Walker
>

Hey Walker,

I thought you'd given up on Innova? Didn't you get burned really badly
with the Smooth Cotton? The Hahnemuhle prices are too high. I'm going
to have to sell my car to keep going with all those rolls..

j

I got burned with both. Innova killed me back in the day with SC going  
flaky. I found tin-foil in one and long drag-striped, and pock-marks,  
and vertical ribbing, and all sorts of horrible crap. About 2/3rds of  
EVERY ROLL FOR  A HALF YEAR were not usable. I was doing edition work  
when it started happening, though, so there was no turning back for a  
long time.

Then I went only Hahnemuhle for the rag surface. Recently I've had  
some stuff yellowing. Weirdly this is only in Chicago and only with  
prints out-of-lab.  The prints we've stored in-lab (for years and  
months) have never yellowed at all. This is from multiple batches  
printed in both labs on four different printers and three different  
ink-sets. We handle everything totally archivily in-lab (we even have  
a HEPA filter, etc.) but something is either in the air in Chicago or  
in some of the framer shops that made Hahnemuhle do its piss-yellow  
thing on the edges that was so bad years back. It could be out- 
gassing, but I'm not sure. Exposure to light and air make the yellow  
go away so it isn't acid. We spray it now. And we switched papers to a  
similar texture to Hahnemuhle for some clients.  But Innova is good  
with QC on the Smooth Cotton ROLLS ONLY.

Let me say again. Innova is good on the QC with Smooth Cotton ROLLS  
ONLY.

But it's a start. Hopefully they will get their asses in gear and  
figure out their QC with all the rest of it. Wayne, if you are  
listening, please do this. Good paper, bad QC. I know you're working  
on it. I commend you for the new Innova. Maybe you can figure out the  
static problem? Hmm? That's still a problem with Innova SC. It  
attracts dust like mad. I'm thinking of putting some sort of ionizer  
on my printer. In the mean-time I will get a big brush. Should have a  
while ago.

all the best,
Walker